Comice de Feurs

Between moving to Saint-Etienne and all my travels, perhaps you thought I'd forsaken the small town where I currently work and lived for my first three months here.

If only I could.

Actually, that's not entirely true -- living there may have been truly an exercise in boredom- and bureaucracy-conquering, but I do enjoy working there (if not so much the commute).

But back to the point: this past weekend was the 127th annual Comice de Feurs, a giant agricultural market and festival that completely takes over the town for four days. As the poster shows, you can buy all sorts of farm animals, including roosters (for raising or for making coq au vin), puppies, or very regal-looking cattle.

With the Comice spanning from Friday to Monday, I didn't have to make an extra trip up to Feurs in order to participate (though it may have been a thing of beauty to actually see people in the streets on a Sunday) since my walk from the train station to school on Monday mornings takes me through the center of town. I actually wish I'd thought to take an earlier train so I could have done more than just snap a few photos on my way to work, but at least I got that much.

In addition to browsing livestock, you can also:

Update your farm equipment with a new tractor!

Support local farmers by buying their sausages and nougat!

Buy a new car from the Post Office-turned car dealership!

There's a huge parking lot in front of the Post Office that's usually reserved for the Tuesday farmer's market, so it was very strange seeing it filled with new Renaults, Peugeots, Citroëns, and Toyotas.

I didn't get to see any of the cows, dogs, or poultry myself since I was both on my way to work and you had to pay to get in, but I certainly could smell them! I'd also been wondering if there would be any attractions for kids amidst all theses agricultural goods and drove past some State Fair-esque rides that were starting to be dismantled on my carpool home from work Monday evening, so at least there was more to this event than just cows and tractors. I wonder if they had funnel cake...

As the self-advertised "Capitole Agricole de la Loire," Feurs' Comice seems to attract people from all over the region to stock up their farms, but the local attitude for the Comice seemed to be much less enthusiastic. One of the reasons I saw as much of it as I did is that the usual bakery I stop by on the way in from the train station was boarded up for the duration, so in order to get my pain au chocolat fix I had to seek out a place that actually bothered to be open... athough to be fair, the entrance was almost impossible to get to thanks to the monstrously huge tractor in front of it. Also, last week one of the teachers I work with actually groaned out loud when her son told her he had to go for homework (she later told me she made her husband go).

All in all, I'm glad I got to experience this small part of Feurs culture even though I'm not living there anymore.